4.1.6. Putting It Together

Kere Architecture, secondary school in Gando, Burkina Faso. A really imaginative system which uses all of the above plus the use of water systems to cool this school.

In the home I mentioned earlier, we used most of the techniques listed here to cool it. We planted banana trees to shade the east windows (important, to prevent heat gain first thing in the AM), and a bean trellis to shade the west facing bathroom during the summer.

In winter, the beans would die back, letting some warmth in. We shaded the south of the house with a line of moringa which grows so fast, we could cut it back as desired in winter to let the sun in and by summertime, it had grown back enough to shade the windows and part of the roof.

We opened the attic trap door just a little, to allow warm air to be drawn out through attic vents and passively cause cool air to come into the house through our shady backyard. We played with opening different windows and doors to find out how to create a breeze throughout the home. You can also assist that process with strategically placed fans.

To create more cool air we added shade trees around the house (that also provided fruit, stacking functions). These simple steps cost almost nothing but caused us to be able to leave the air conditioning off completely for an average of two extra months per year. I was able to be comfortable with no air conditioning in my room year round, with the strategic use of fans in addition to the above techniques.